From the Bob Davids Chapter of the Society of American Baseball Research, which serves SABR members in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and parts of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Visit the Chapter's website at:

This bimonthly newsletter is distributed electronically to members. It is designed mainly to survive emailing; a less clunky version is available on our site [look on the "Links" page]. The deadline for material for the next newsletter is April 25.

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1. Baseball Datebook -- March, April, and Beyond

2. Around the Horn: Local Baseball Attractions

3. Chapter News -- Remembering Griffith, etc.

4. Rounding Second: Member News

5. On Deck: What Some Members Are Up To

6. Member Profile: the Prolific Paul Dickson

7. Bedsheet Banners (Our Bulletin Board)

8. Name That E-Rag! Win $29!

9. Editorial Stuff

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(1) BASEBALL DATEBOOK

Several chapter members are participating in an open symposium on the history of baseball on the Maryland's Eastern Shore. The program will include both exhibits and presentations. Among the museums that will provide displays are the Babe Ruth Museum, the Eastern Shore Hall of Fame, and the Jimmie Foxx Museum. Featured speakers will include chapter members Norman Macht (Easton MD), Barry Sparks (York PA), Mark Millikin (Chesapeake Beach MD), and Marty Payne (St. Michaels MD). The program takes place at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, MD, on March 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon. The College is about 15 minutes east of the bay bridge, at the intersection of routes 50 and 213. Take a right at the first stop light after crossing the bridge [from the west] and you are there. There is a $15 fee, which covers a continental breakfast. If you would like a course description and registration form, email Marty Payne at

Dropping in on the Cactus League? Arizona chapter president Bill Suphan invites you to be part of his chapter's 9^th Annual Gala Spring Training Weekend. On the 24^th you'll find a tailgate party near the ASABR banner at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, where the A's will host the Angels. On the 25^th, go to the Fiesta Inn in Tempe at 8AM for a breakfast and research presentations, etc. For more details, contact Bill at

Poke around Prince Georges Stadium, Bowie MD. 2000 people did last year. Get autographs [McGregor! Sheets! Flanagan!] , see exhibits, take a tour, try our trivia contest. We are seeking volunteers for a SABR presence at the Open House [see Dave Raglin's description, below]. The Open House runs from 10AM to 4PM, admission is free. For directions, go to

Talkin' Baseball will meet at 9AM at Border's Bookstore in Columbia, MD, in the Columbia Crossing Shopping Center near the intersection of Route 175 and Dobbin Road, less than 2 miles west of Interstate 95. For more information, call Dave Paulson at (301) 854-2244 or email him at

Our popular baseball weekend will be held in early May this year, as the Orioles host the New York Yankees. The weekend always promises to be a great deal of fun for families. The event schedule is currently being planned, with application forms being mailed out to those who are interested. You will have the option of selecting a 2-game or 3-game plan. Contact Glenn Spatz at (410) 782-2443 or email him at

Noting that several Davids chapter members traditionally attend this annual SABR chapter meeting, Joe McGillen invites you to Philadelphia for the 2000 chapter meeting. It runs from 9AM to 4:30PM, and takes place at the visitors' locker room at Veterans Stadium. You can park in the VIP parking area on Broad Street. As usual, there will be research presentations during the AM session and a player panel in the PM. A buffet lunch will be served. Further details may be obtained from Joe McGillen, (215) 698-0476 (

This year's annual SABR convention takes place at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel at the Milwaukee. Details are at

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Note: Don't forget to let me know of any baseball site, resource, or event in our chapter region that you'd like to see reviewed. Just send me a note at

Our first stop is at the eastern end of our region. The Eastern Shore Hall of Fame Museum is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 50 and Hobbs Road in Salisbury, MD [and about 70 miles from the Bay Bridge near Annapolis]; it is just west of the route 13 junction coming south from Delaware. It is housed at Perdue Stadium, home of the Delmarva Shorebirds of the South Atlantic League. It is open every home stand and is included in the game admission. It also keeps hours when the team is on the road, but you might want to call first at (410) 546-4444 to confirm.

The exhibits are dedicated to the small town semi-pro and class D minor leagues of past years, but the names of some of the players included in their Hall of Fame are noteworthy. Exhibits include uniforms, equipment, newspaper clippings, photos, and other memorabilia from the many teams that played in the area. Many of the items are on loan from personal collections.

One of the most enjoyable features of the museum is the knowledgeable and friendly volunteer staff. They love to talk baseball, and will, as long as you like. Their knowledge is as much a resource as the exhibits.

This is a place where local fathers and grandfathers take the children before a minor league game so they can connect with the past and put the game in perspective. This is a place where a group of major league scouts recently marveled at the experience and remarked that it was a shame that all minor league parks didn't have something like it.

If you are heading for the beach resorts of Maryland or Delaware, this is a stop worth making for any baseball fan.

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Our next stop around the horn this issue is a little outside the regional chapter area, but I think it warrants our attention. The Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society operates a museum, research library, and gift shop at 6 N. York Road in Hatboro, Pa [just north of Philadelphia, off the Penn Turnpike]. If you haven't been there, a visit their rich website at

I would recommend this museum just based on a tour of the website. If anyone has been there, I would like to hear their impressions, so that we can pass them along in the next issue.

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I was exploring new properties to be used as the home of a non-profit organization that I administer, when the house at 9100 Old Georgetown Road, in Bethesda MD, came up as one to be examined. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I realized that the property was the home of Washington Senator great Walter Johnson. While the beautiful Victorian did not suit our needs -- it has been declared a historic home and thus can not be added to -- the house itself is in wonderful condition.

The 2600 square-foot house has been totally renovated and is one of the most appealing homes in its area. Nine-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, a working fireplace, and the quality of its restoration permitted this house sell for $500,000. The only drawback to this beautiful home, a feature that would make the former Montgomery County commissioner proud, is the fact that the front door is only about 20 feet from Old Georgetown Road. The county has grown so much that this road -- a simple two lane "country road" when the Big Train lived in the house -- is now a major suburban thoroughfare.

The house was later sold to Linda Feeney, who bought it as an investment property. It is currently being rented to her nephew, Donnie. Neither her nephew nor Ms. Feeney were influenced by the fact that the house had been owned and lived in by a true Washington hero. Her nephew observes that it is "kind of neat" to live in such a special house. The Feeneys seem to be finding more and more about the house, its surrounding neighborhood (which at one time was part of Walter Johnson's estate) and the history of the property. They have begun doing research into the property.

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The book is described as the first truly comprehensive source on the All-Star game tradition. It contains detailed information on the games themselves, on the accompanying ceremonies, and on how and why both have evolved as they have. It also chronicles how the contest has been affected by on-field factors (like the DH) and off-field influences (like the breaking of the color barrier and the all-too-familiar movement of baseball franchises).

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Trappe MD's favorite Baker is the subject of Marty Payne's (St. Michaels MD) Frank "Home Run" Baker -- Not Just the Nickname Was Interesting. The article traces Baker's eventful life: it touches on his birth on the family farm, his early $5/week contract, his failure in a tryout with Jack Dunn's 1907 Orioles, his preference for a 52-ounce bat [oooff], his reign as AL homer king for 4 straight years, his migration from 3B star for the champion A's to teammate of Babe Ruth on the Yankees, his signing of the 16-year-old Jimmie Foxx from neighboring Sudlersville, his retirement to the Trappe farm, and his selection to the HOF via the Veterans Committee in 1955. All this, and he may not have even been his family's best. Older brother Norman won an earlier tryout with the A's, but hated the city and left. Marty does not report whether Norman thereby gained the nickname "Run Home" Baker.

In The Balance of Power in Baseball -- Has Anything Changed, Stuart Shapiro (Washington) takes a statistical look at which teams make the playoffs, year by year, in order to gauge whether dynasties are more or less common nowadays. He also compares baseball with other sports, finding that dynasties are more common in baseball and basketball [where one superstar can carry a smaller squad?], and that football and hockey teams show more turnover at the top [tougher salary caps?]. Stuart concludes that despite today's prominent Yankees and Braves, concentration of pennants and championships in baseball is still within its historical trend line, though the early 1980's do stand out as a period of relative parity.

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Joseph Wayland's compilation, Grandstand Baseball Annual 2000 [$10.95, Box 4203, Downey CA] contains offerings by four chapter members.

In Hack Wilson Crusade, Lyle Spatz (Edgewater MD) offers a note on the 22-year effort to convince MLB to correct a July 1930 scorekeeping error that robbed Hack Wilson of an RBI in his record-setting 191 [count 'em! count 'em again!] RBI season.

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A popular speaker at our 1999 Regional, Doug Lyons (New York) has a new Random House paperback coming out at the end of March. Curveballs and Screwballs, co-written with Doug's brother Jeffrey, picks up where their earlier Out of Left Field (1998) left off. It will tell you whose off-season job was tending minks and why Stump Merrill and Art Shamsky are Hall of Famers, among very many other questions you may not have realized were important or interesting. Doug is at

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The title of Michelle Green's forthcoming book for young adults is A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie "Peanut" Johnson." Slated for release in spring 2002 by Dial Books for Young Readers, the book tells the story of the first woman ever to pitch professional baseball. Peanut Johnson, who spoke at our regional meeting in recent years, pitched three winning seasons with the Negro League's Indianapolis Clowns in the early 1950s. Of the three women who played pro baseball with the Negro League, Mamie is the only surviving player. Complete with archival photos, the book will sell for $15.95. Mamie now works with The Negro Leagues Baseball Shop, 7913 Central Avenue, Capitol Heights MD. The phone number is 301-333-0444, and the website is

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A frequent contributor to SABR's National Pastime and Baseball Research Journal, Jerry Casway (Columbia MD) has just finished a piece on Ben Shibe and Al Reach for a SABR publication on Philadelphia baseball. His next project addresses the issue of race in 19^th Century baseball. He working to publish his recently completed book, Ed Delahanty and the Emerald Age of Baseball. Jerry is at

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Author of Inside Game (1995) and Baseball Goes to War (1998) and co-author of Baseball -- The President's Game (1993), Bill Mead (Bethesda) now tells friends that he co-starred with Walter Matthau in Matthau's last movie. Both gents were on-screen commentators in the highly regarded movie The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg made by Washington filmmaker Aviva Kempner. Bill was also recently interviewed for an upcoming ESPN special on the Tiger slugger. These experiences have persuaded him that movies and TV are much easier than writing.

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An epidemiologist, Stephen Lyman (Alexandria) has submitted a paper to Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise on pitching injuries among young ballplayers. He reviewed postgame complaints from about 300 young hurlers over two seasons, finding that 32% reported shoulder pain and 26% reported elbow pain over that span. Possible causal factors were weighed. One key influence appears to be the number of pitches thrown, and thus a limiting guideline of 75 pitches per game is suggested, along with the avoidance of pitching in additional non-league games. Stephen hopes next to address injuries to major leaguers. He is at

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With 500 pages drafted, Norman Macht (Easton MD) reports that his biography of Connie Mack has reached the 1905 season. "I don't see it as having a long way to go," Norman says of his 15-year project. "I see it as having started out with 93 years to cover, with only 51 more to go."

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Founder and President of the Brooklyn Dodgers Fan Club [and former SABR VP], Ron Gabriel (suburban MD) is in his 26^th year of publishing Brooklyn Dodger Line Drives, which goes out quarterly to members of the Fan Club. His most recent paper was Jackie Robinson -- His Impact on the Lives of Others, given at a conference on the life of the great Dodger infielder.

(6) MEMBER PROFILE -- THE PROLIFIC PAUL DICKSON

Paul Dickson is the author of 45 books, including several baseball standbys. His next baseball offering will be The Hidden Language of Baseball, a study of how signs and other non-verbal communications infuse the game

After college Paul began a career in journalism, then turned to writing books, including works on language, slang, and jokes.

Fatherhood helped turn the writer back to baseball. Attending an Orioles game with his young son, Paul found himself confronted with a boy's sensible questions about baseball's special terminology: like, "Why 'shortstop"? The eventual result was the popular Dickson Baseball Dictionary, one of Paul's best selling titles.

Succeeding works include Baseball's Greatest Quotations (1991), The Worth Book of Softball: A Celebration of America's True National Pastime (1994), The Joy of Keeping Score (1996), and Baseball: The President's Game (with William Mead, 1993).

1999 saw the publication of The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary. Paul credits several SABR members, but especially Skip McAfee (Columbia MD), with helping substantially with the new edition. He and Skip are already at work on a third edition.

For a longer version of this profile, go to

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This e-newsletter needs a name, and you may be just the one to supply it. Other chapters' newsletters have cool names --, New York's Casey Stengel chapter has You Could Look it Up and the Arizona chapter has the Hot Corner. Ideally the name will seem suitable to both Baltimoreans and Washingtonians, two clans that think they have little in common [other than Clint "Scrap Iron" Courtney, who caught for the O's and Nats]. Kelly Pollins suggests a Naming Contest, so let's try it. Field Notes? Baselines? Birdland and Wordland (nah, too weird)? The Babe and the Beast (too obscure, and it leaves out Lefty Grove)? The Tarp -- Covering the Field of Baseball (pleeeease)? Baseballology (lacks a certain elegance)? C'mon, bleachermates, you can do better than that. Send your brainstorms to

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We welcome your ideas and contributions. And we accept your complaints.